Turtle Monitoring in Kosi Bay

It’s evening, the sky a velvet cloak of stars. An virtually full moon makes the sand glisten. Our torches are off because the moon sheds a fair mild throughout the seashore and elongates our shadows.

Written by Veruska De Vita

I’m barefoot on a seashore in Kosi Bay, the northernmost a part of KwaZulu-Natal bordering Mozambique, with a bunch of walkers and a information looking for indicators of newly-hatched turtles. In hushed voices we stroll and chat, hyper-aware of our pristine environment. I kick up the sand and marvel on the bioluminescent phytoplankton flashing in blues and greens like sparklers on a birthday cake.

We’re on a five-day strolling tour of the world that may take us via coastal forest, throughout lakes and over seashores. It is usually turtle season when loggerhead and leatherback child turtles hatch and make their solution to the ocean. Every year between November and early March, feminine turtles make their approach again to their native seashore to nest.

We’re all hoping to identify one thing after which we see them: tiny tyre-like tracks on the sand the place turtles have crawled to the water. A couple of steps forward our information Simanga crouches down and factors his infrared torch.

It’s a loggerhead turtle that has damaged via its shell and climbed out of its sandy nest. Crabs, a whole bunch of them, scurry across the turtle making an attempt to nip a bit of flesh. It’s survival of the fittest, the strongest and the largest in numbers.

‘The crabs already acquired to it,’ Patrick says in a resigned voice. ‘Look how slowly it’s transferring.’

We’re all rooting for the turtle, prepared it to achieve the water, however halfway it halts, its throat throbbing rapidly with the trouble of respiratory. We transfer away and let it’s, within the information that out of 5 hundred eggs maybe solely two survive to turn into absolutely grown.

Additional alongside the seashore, we encounter two feisty loggerhead turtles, the scale of a kid’s hand, making a beeline for the ocean. Our spirits renewed we watch, silent and awestruck, as their clumsy actions on the sand flip to essentially the most swish of swimming within the water the place they disappear into the waves.

Again the place we began, we placed on our flip-flops and retrace our steps into the luxurious forest alive with evening sounds and clamber onto the again of a bakkie. Holding tight and searching up on the cover of timber we head again to Amangwane Camp, our base for the journey.

On the camp we commune across the crackling fireplace, drinks in hand, smiling and chatting concerning the immense present of getting witnessed a part of a turtle’s lifecycle. It begins to rain and, untangling ourselves from conversations, we make our solution to our rooms, that are spartan, comfy and en-suite.

The subsequent morning we sling daypacks over our shoulders and start our stroll via the forest. Kosi Bay is a part of the iSimangaliso Nationwide Park which was declared a World Heritage Web site in 1999 due to its water system. The world is exclusive for its string of 4 lakes linked by meandering channels fringed by wetlands and dune forests. The ecosystem is dwelling to an array of endemic birds and animals. It is usually one of many few areas the place the Raffia Palm grows, which in flip attracts giant numbers of Palm Nut Vultures.

Because the solar traces a blazing path throughout the sky we stroll within the shade of hibiscus timber, wild figs, Albizia and Strelitzia till we attain the water’s edge.

I take off my footwear and roll up my trousers after which wade into an enormous round lake, my toes squelching within the silky mud. The water is cool. I cease to {photograph} a fish entice made the identical approach immediately as they had been seven centuries in the past. For the Tsonga who stay right here, fish traps are a generational custom. There’s a collection of them within the lake and thigh deep I make my solution to the closest one.

Fish traps

Manufactured from sticks which were pushed into the lakebed and woven along with rope created from the encircling vegetation, the entice seems to be like a palisade kraal. It curves like a comma, guiding the fish inside in the direction of a smaller entice. It’s straightforward for fish to swim in, however troublesome for them to swim out.

Nevertheless, smaller fish handle to wriggle away between the sticks, a design that ensures the sustainability of fish inventory. Even so, fish numbers within the lakes and estuary have diminished considerably.

I wade in the direction of a fisherman and ask him how typically involves the lake to examine. ‘Each three to 5 days, however there aren’t as many fish as earlier than,’ he says as he repairs a piece of his fish entice, pushing a stick deep into the mud and lacing a size of palm leaf round it.

We proceed our stroll via one other part of coastal forest till we discover ourselves on the identical seashore the place the earlier evening we had watched child turtles make their solution to the water. We spot a completely grown leatherback turtle within the waves; it’s at the very least two metres lengthy and possibly weighs 5 hundred kilograms. We watch in awe, grabbing each second, after which it’s gone.

A registered information will get guests on a turtle tour proper up near a leatherback turtle laying its eggs on the seashore close to Cape Vidal.

Within the afternoon we arrive at Kosi estuary mouth the place the Indian Ocean mixes with candy water from the lakes. The estuary is named the aquarium, teeming with tropical fish. With a snorkel and masks, I dive right down to discover the rocks the place eels, lionfish, masked bannerfish and different species frolic. I swim throughout to the sand financial institution and trundle to the following channel of water the place waist deep I slowly make my solution to the seashore.

Saturated with the pristine colors, smells and sounds of this paradise we wallow within the striped shade of palm timber. We relaxation awhile, hungry, thirsty, however loving the place we’re at.

Learn: Bob released into the wild after 8 year recovery at Two Oceans Aquarium

Extra Info

Spekboom Excursions presents bespoke strolling and turtle monitoring packages in Kosi Bay. Their subsequent tour might be taking place in January 2024. For extra info or to guide go to their website here or name Julia Invernizzi on 076-819-0615

Amangwane Camp has direct entry to the pristine seashores and lakes of the Kosi Bay space. The camp is run by the educated and skilled Tony Birkholtz and Lize du Plessis.

Footage” Provided/ Getaway Gallery

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